SLR has issued a blanket waiver regarding a men’s and women’s fencing event scheduled to occur November 7-10, 2008. The final day of the event falls on the start of the fall NLI dead period. This blanket waiver has been posted on LSDBi and on the CLR/SLR homepage.
Here's the text of the waiver:
NCAA Division I Bylaws 30.10.10 (Dead or Quiet Periods for Other Sports) and 30.10.10.1 (National Letter of Intent Signing Date). November 3, 2008. The NCAA Division I Legislative Council Subcommittee for Legislative Relief approved with conditions a blanket waiver to permit NCAA Division I men's and women's fencing coaches to evaluate prospective student-athletes (PSAs) participating in the November 7-10, 2008, United States (US) Fencing Association's North American Cup (NAC) event. The subcommittee noted the final day of the NAC event (November 10) is scheduled to occur during the dead period for the initial week of the fall signing of the National Letter of Intent (NLI). While coaches are permitted under the legislation to attend and/or officiate at the event November 7-9, the recruiting calendar legislation does not permit coaches to attend the final day of the event November 10. The subcommittee granted the request based on the totality of circumstances. Specifically, the subcommittee noted: (1) Applicant conference filed a similar waiver for the 2007 NAC event and agreed at that time to sponsor a legislative exception; however, applicant conference subsequently forgot to submit the legislative proposal; (2) Applicant conference was notified October 24 that several Division I fencing coaches had again agreed to participate as officials during the 2008 event and discovered it would be impermissible for the coaches to officiate on the final day of the event due to the National Letter of Intent (NLI) dead period; (3) Based on the timing of discovery, the NAC organizers are not able to secure alternate officials for November 10; (4) The NAC organizers would have had to cancel the matches scheduled for November 10 if the waiver request was not granted; and (5) No recruiting advantage would be gained since the blanket waiver permits any Division I men's or women's fencing coach to attend the NAC event November 10. The subcommittee granted the blanket waiver request with the following conditions: (1) This is a one-time waiver request for any Division I fencing coach to evaluate PSAs at the 2008 United States (US) Fencing Association's North American Cup (NAC) event November 10 and future requests will be denied; (2) Applicant conference must sponsor legislation to address recruiting calendar conflicts with future NAC events and if such a proposal is defeated, future requests will be denied; (3) The Division I fencing coaches in attendance November 10 may only evaluate and may not engage in any recruiting-type conversations (e.g., contacts, recruiting presentations) with PSAs in attendance; and (4) Any Division I fencing coach in attendance November 10 must abide by all other recruiting legislation (e.g., limitations on the number of evaluations). To view this blanket waiver in its entirety, please access SLR Case No. 11396 on LSDBi.